Рубрика:
84
The development of mechanical calculating machines made the digital computers
necessary. An ordinary arithmometer and a desk key calculator have given rise to
electronic digital computers. Digital computers came into being in the first half of
the 17
th
century. Many outstanding Russian and foreign mathematicians of
that time created mechanical calculating devices.
The famous Russian scientist M. V. Lomonosov compiled a lot of calculating
tables and several computing devices concerning different fields of science
and engineering.
In 1874 the Russian engineer V. T. Odner invented a special counter wheel
1
named after him the Odner’s wheel, which is used in modern arithmometers
and calculators.
P. L. Chebyshev, academician, made a valuable contribution to the field of
computing machines. He is known
2
to have many good ideas in mathematics,
some of which have been named after him. For example, the Chebyshev’s
polynomials play a unique role in the field of orthogonal functions. In 1878 he
constructed an original computing machine, which was exhibited in Paris. In
1882 P. L. Chebyshev invented an arithmometer performing automatically
multiplication and division. The automation principle put into this computing
machine is still widely used all over the world for developing modern computers.
In 1884 Russia began manufacturing computing machines. During World
War I the output of computing machines was stopped but soon it continued.
At the end of the 1930s computing engineering began the new era. There
appeared computers operating at high speed. The rapid advance of computers
resulted from the success achieved by electronics. There appeared a possibility
to solve complex mathematical problems within an unusually short time. Modern
engineering enables to do the amount of calculations and researches within a
very short period of time, which would have required years of laborious work
of large groups of people before
3
.
The first electronic digital computer was developed in Russia under the
supervision of S. A. Lebedev in 1950. Then, in 1953 BESM (High-Speed
Electronic Computer) was designed by the Academy of Sciences. This machine
could perform about 250 million operations. A human being could do this
work during 300 years of continuous labour.
BESM was followed by a number of large-, medium-, and small-size general
and special purpose computers
4
. It was the first generation of computers
constructed on electronic tubes.
The second-generation computers were solid-state large-powered machines.
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